213 research outputs found
Strain accommodation through facet matching in LaSrCuO/NdCeCuO ramp-edge junctions
Scanning nano-focused X-ray diffraction (nXRD) and high-angle annular
dark-field scanning transmission electron microscopy (HAADF-STEM) are used to
investigate the crystal structure of ramp-edge junctions between
superconducting electron-doped NdCeCuO
and superconducting hole-doped LaSrCuO
thin films, the latter being the top layer. On the ramp, a new growth mode of
LaSrCuO with a 3.3 degree tilt of the
c-axis is found. We explain the tilt by developing a strain accommodation model
that relies on facet matching, dictated by the ramp angle, indicating that a
coherent domain boundary is formed at the interface. The possible implications
of this growth mode for the creation of artificial domains in morphotropic
materials are discussed.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures & 3 pages supplemental information with 2 figures.
Copyright (2015) American Institute of Physics. This article may be
downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of
the author and the American Institute of Physics. The following article
appeared in APL Mat. 3, 086101 (2015) and may be found at
http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.492779
Magnetic monopoles and superinsulation in Josephson junction arrays
Electric-magnetic duality or S-duality, extending the symmetry of Maxwell's
equations by including the symmetry between Noether electric charges and
topological magnetic monopoles, is one of the most fundamental concepts of
modern physics. In two-dimensional systems harboring Cooper pairs, S-duality
manifests in the emergence of superinsulation, a state dual to
superconductivity, which exhibits an infinite resistance at finite
temperatures. The mechanism behind this infinite resistance is the linear
charge confinement by a magnetic monopole plasma. This plasma constricts
electric field lines connecting the charge-anti-charge pairs into electric
strings, in analogy to quarks within hadrons. Yet the origin of the monopole
plasma remains an open question. Here we consider a two-dimensional Josephson
junction array (JJA) and reveal that the magnetic monopole plasma arises as
quantum instantons, thus establishing the underlying mechanism of
superinsulation as two-dimensional quantum tunneling events. We calculate the
string tension and the dimension of an electric pion determining the minimal
size of a system capable of hosting superinsulation. Our findings pave the way
for study of fundamental S-duality in desktop experiments on JJA and
superconducting films.Comment: 10 pages, 1 figur
Direct observation of nanoscale interface phase in the superconducting chalcogenide KFeSe with intrinsic phase separation
We have used scanning micro x-ray diffraction to characterize different
phases in superconducting KFeSe as a function of temperature,
unveiling the thermal evolution across the superconducting transition
temperature (T32 K), phase separation temperature (T520 K)
and iron-vacancy order temperature (T580 K). In addition to the
iron-vacancy ordered tetragonal magnetic phase and orthorhombic metallic
minority filamentary phase, we have found a clear evidence of the interface
phase with tetragonal symmetry. The metallic phase is surrounded by this
interface phase below 300 K, and is embedded in the insulating texture.
The spatial distribution of coexisting phases as a function of temperature
provides a clear evidence of the formation of protected metallic percolative
paths in the majority texture with large magnetic moment, required for the
electronic coherence for the superconductivity. Furthermore, a clear
reorganization of iron-vacancy order around the T and T is found
with the interface phase being mostly associated with a different iron-vacancy
configuration, that may be important for protecting the percolative
superconductivity in KFeSe.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure
Lymphocyte distribution and intrahepatic compartmentalization during HCV infection: a main role for MHC-unrestricted T cells
Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection induces an acute and chronic liver inflammation through an immune-mediated pathway that may lead to cirrhosis and liver failure. Indeed, HCV-related hepatitis is characterized by a dramatic lymphocyte infiltrate into the liver which is mainly composed by HCV non-specific cells. Several data indicated that interferon (IFN)-gamma secretion by intrahepatic lymphocytes (IHL) may drive non-specific cell homing to the liver, inducing interferon inducible protein-10 (IP-10) production. An interesting hallmark of these IHL is the recruitment of lymphocytes associated with mechanisms of innate immunity, such as natural killer (NK), natural killer T (NKT) and gamma delta T lymphocytes. CD81 triggering on NK cell surface by the HCV envelope glycoprotein E2 was recently shown to inhibit NK cell function in the liver of HCV-infected persons, resulting in a possible mechanism contributing to the lack of virus clearance and to the establishment of chronic infection. In contrast, intrahepatic NKT cells restricted to CD1d molecules expressed on the hepatocyte surface may contribute to a large extent to liver damage. Finally, an increased frequency of T cells expressing the gamma delta T cell receptor (TCR) was observed in HCV-infected liver and recent observations indicate that intrahepatic gamma delta T cell activation could be directly induced by the HCV/E2 particle through CD81 triggering. These cells are not HCV specific, are able to kill target cells including primary hepatocytes and their ability to produce T helper (Th)1 cytokines is associated with a higher degree of liver disease. Together, CD1d/NKT and/or E2/CD81 interactions may play a major role in the establishment of HCV immunopathogenesis. In the absence of virus clearance, the chemokine-driven recruitment of lymphocytes with an innate cytotoxic behavior in the liver of HCV-infected patients may boost itself, leading to necroinflammatory and fibrotic liver disease
Critical behavior at the dynamic Mott transition
RevTex4, 9 pages, 5 figuresRevTex4, 9 pages, 5 figuresWe investigate magnetoresistance of a square array of superconducting islands placed on a normal metal, which offers a unique tunable laboratory for realizing and exploring quantum many-body systems and their dynamics. A vortex Mott insulator where magnetic field-induced vortices are frozen in the dimples of the egg crate potential by their strong repulsion interaction is discovered. We find an insulator-to-metal transition driven by the applied electric current and determine critical exponents that exhibit striking similarity with the common thermodynamic liquid-gas transition. A simple and straightforward quantum mechanical picture is proposed that describes both tunneling dynamics in the deep insulating state and the observed scaling behavior in the vicinity of the critical point. Our findings offer a comprehensive description of dynamic Mott critical behavior and establish a deep connection between equilibrium and nonequilibrium phase transitions
Interferon-α Improves Phosphoantigen-Induced Vγ9Vδ2 T-Cells Interferon-γ Production during Chronic HCV Infection
In chronic HCV infection, treatment failure and defective host immune response highly demand improved therapy strategies. Vγ9Vδ2 T-cells may inhibit HCV replication in vitro through IFN-γ release after Phosphoantigen (PhAg) stimulation. The aim of our work was to analyze Vγ9Vδ2 T-cell functionality during chronic HCV infection, studying the role of IFN-α on their function capability. IFN-γ production by Vγ9Vδ2 T-cells was analyzed in vitro in 24 HCV-infected patients and 35 healthy donors (HD) after PhAg stimulation with or without IFN-α. The effect of in vivo PhAg/IFN-α administration on plasma IFN-γ levels was analyzed in M. fascicularis monkeys. A quantitative analysis of IFN-γ mRNA level and stability in Vγ9Vδ2 T-cells was also evaluated. During chronic HCV infection, Vγ9Vδ2 T-cells showed an effector/activated phenotype and were significantly impaired in IFN-γ production. Interestingly, IFN-α was able to improve their IFN-γ response to PhAg both in vitro in HD and HCV-infected patients, and in vivo in Macaca fascicularis primates. Finally, IFN-α increased IFN-γ-mRNA transcription and stability in PhAg-activated Vγ9Vδ2 T-cells. Altogether our results show a functional impairment of Vγ9Vδ2 T-cells during chronic HCV infection that can be partially restored by using IFN-α. A study aimed to evaluate the antiviral impact of PhAg/IFN-α combination may provide new insight in designing possible combined strategies to improve HCV infection treatment outcome
Pinning of stripes by local structural distortions in cuprate high-Tc superconductors
We study the spin-density wave (stripe) instability in lattices with mixed
low-temperature orthorhombic (LTO) and low-temperature tetragonal (LTT) crystal
symmetry. Within an explicit mean-field model it is shown how local LTT regions
act as pinning centers for static stripe formation. We calculate the
modulations in the local density of states near these local stripe regions and
find that mainly the coherence peaks and the van Hove singularity (VHS) are
spatially modulated. Lastly, we use the real-space approach to simulate recent
tunneling data in the overdoped regime where the VHS has been detected by
utilizing local normal state regions.Comment: Conference proceedings for Stripes1
Scaling universality at the dynamic vortex Mott transition
The cleanest way to observe a dynamic Mott insulator-to-metal transition (DMT) without the interference from disorder and other effects inherent to electronic and atomic systems, is to employ the vortex Mott states formed by superconducting vortices in a regular array of pinning sites. Here, we report the critical behavior of the vortex system as it crosses the DMT line, driven by either current or temperature. We find universal scaling with respect to both, expressed by the same scaling function and characterized by a single critical exponent coinciding with the exponent for the thermodynamic Mott transition. We develop a theory for the DMT based on the parity reflection-time reversal (PT) symmetry breaking formalism and find that the nonequilibrium-induced Mott transition has the same critical behavior as the thermal Mott transition. Our findings demonstrate the existence of physical systems in which the effect of a nonequilibrium drive is to generate an effective temperature and hence the transition belonging in the thermal universality class
Shape resonance for the anisotropic superconducting gaps near a Lifshitz transition: the effect of electron hopping between layers
The multigap superconductivity modulated by quantum confinement effects in a
superlattice of quantum wells is presented. Our theoretical BCS approach
captures the low-energy physics of a shape resonance in the superconducting
gaps when the chemical potential is tuned near a Lifshitz transition. We focus
on the case of weak Cooper-pairing coupling channels and strong pair exchange
interaction driven by repulsive Coulomb interaction that allows to use the BCS
theory in the weak-coupling regime neglecting retardation effects like in
quantum condensates of ultracold gases. The calculated matrix element effects
in the pairing interaction are shown to yield a complex physics near the
particular quantum critical points due to Lifshitz transitions in multigap
superconductivity. Strong deviations of the ratio from the
standard BCS value as a function of the position of the chemical potential
relative to the Lifshitz transition point measured by the Lifshitz parameter
are found. The response of the condensate phase to the tuning of the Lifshitz
parameter is compared with the response of ultracold gases in the BCS-BEC
crossover tuned by an external magnetic field. The results provide the
description of the condensates in this regime where matrix element effects play
a key role.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figure
Two-bands superconductivity with intra- and interband pairing for synthetic superlattices
We consider a model for superconductivity in a two-band superconductor,
having an anisotropic electronic structure made of two partially overlapping
bands with a first hole-like and a second electron-like fermi surface. In this
pairing scenario, driven by the interplay between interband and
intraband pairing terms, we have solved the two gap equations at the
critical temperature and calculate and the chemical potential
as a function of the number of carriers for various values of pairing
interactions, , , and . The results show the
complexity of the physics of condensates with multiple order parameters with
the chemical potential near band edges.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figure
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